Thriller – Page 27 – My Good Reads

‘Try Not to Breathe’ – Holly Seddon

A barely-functioning alcoholic journalist stumbles across one of the country’s biggest news stories of fifteen years ago in a vegetative state. Alex Dale is determined to find out exactly what happened to Amy Stevenson, and this book takes us through her experience.

I was gripped from the start, and the opening chapter immediately sets up an intriguing idea. We have so many questions, which we are made to wait a while for…

Alex was a character that I could imagine to be unbearable in life, yet her frailty and vulnerability was laid bare as we progressed through the novel.
The thriller element of this did have me a little wrong-footed. I did not guess who it was, but I was bothered by the fact that the guilty party seemed to be so mysterious throughout.

On occasion, I had to reread sections just to be completely clear whose viewpoint we were getting.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy

‘Bullet Boys’ – Ally Kennen

While ‘Bullet Boys’ features a trio of teenage boys at its heart, and some fairly mature action, it is a relatively straightforward read. I can see it appealing to boys and girls, particularly those who like their action and aren’t too bothered about understanding why it happens or even whether the action is particularly credible. That’s not to say it’s a bad read, but I didn’t find it quite as good as ‘Berserk’ or ‘Beast’.

It was, without question, entertaining once things got going.

Alex, Max and Levi are an unlikely group of friends. Alex is calm and steady, content to watch those around him, and he is handy to have around in a crisis (useful by the end of this novel). Levi is desperate to improve his lot in life. His initial actions spark a lot of the problems that come later. However, they could probably have avoided a lot of these problems if it weren’t for Max – a definite character to avoid if you ever came across him in real life!

This novel focuses in part on the boys’ developing relationships and their progression to adulthood. It’s successful here, and in the moments when we are watching the boys out in the wilds of Dartmoor. Where I found it less successful was with the plot concerning the Army and the hidden cache of guns. Made for some interesting scenes, but it all got so far-fetched by the end that I was keen for it to be over. I’m sure others will put it down in a much more positive frame of mind…

‘The Shut Eye’ – Belinda Bauer

What can I say? A slow-burner in the sense that I spent most of the book feeling I was missing that one elusive detail that would allow everything to make sense. Yet this was not as off-putting as you might think.

I don’t want to give away any plot details here, but the story focuses on a number of key characters. We have the Buicks, James and Anna, whose son went missing some months ago; Edie Evans, a young girl who has been missing for over a year; DCI Marvel, who was investigating her case and Richard Latham, the psychic who seems to have been involved in both cases.

The focus on Anna, and the day-to-day impact of losing a child, is heart-rending. DCI Marvel is more than little infuriating, but well-meaning, and I found myself desperately hoping he’d get his happy ending and finally manage to put this case behind him. As we veer from story to story it reads like a jigsaw puzzle, with that final piece tantalisingly out of reach.

It’s only after I’d finished reading that I could really appreciate the skill shown in the writing of this novel. A surprise hit – and a writer I might have to try more by.

‘The Lost and the Found’ – Cat Clarke

Laurel was kidnapped at the age of 6. Her sister, Faith, and family never lost hope that she would be found but we see their lives are deeply affected by this event.

Thirteen years later, Laurel appears.

Things are not quite what they seem, and this was an interesting exploration of the impact of such an event on the family. I had my suspicions, but nothing prepared me for the sucker-punch of the ending.

I’d not read anything by Cat Clarke prior to this, but I am keen to try more by her. Though I didn’t particularly like the subject matter, I felt this was well-handled and the characters were sensitively portrayed.

‘The Hollow Boy’ – Jonathan Stroud

What can I say? Another great adventure in the Lockwood & Co. series.

This time, there is a supernatural outbreak that is taxing all the agencies in London. Old rivalries are put aside as the agents have to work together to keep alive.

Glamorous new assistant, Holly Munro, causes some upset and the skull in the jar is becoming more and more vocal.

The ending hints at a dark and terrible future. I personally can’t wait for the next in the series!

‘Need’ – Joelle Charbonneau

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WANT AND A NEED. WHAT DO YOU NEED?
One by one, the teens in Nottawa, Wisconsin join the newest, hottest networking site and answer one question: What do you need? A new iPhone? Backstage tickets to a concert? In exchange for a seemingly minor task, the NEED site will fulfill your request. Everyone is doing it. So why shouldn’t you?

Kaylee Dunham knows what she needs –a kidney for her sick brother. She doesn’t believe a social networking site can help, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

Or could it?

After making her request, Kaylee starts to realize the price that will have to be paid for her need to be met. The demands the site makes on users in exchange for their desires are escalating and so is the body count. Will Kaylee be able to unravel the mystery of who created the NEED network—and pull the plug before it destroys them all?

As soon as I read this description I really wanted to read this book. I was lucky enough to receive a digital copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, prior to publication in November.

The first thing I will say is that this is a great concept – and it doesn’t surprise me that the novel is already being optioned for a movie. Initially, the demands placed on the students are fairly trivial, but things quickly take a far more sinister turn. The consequences of what people are being asked to do are far-reaching, but if nobody knows who’s done it, does it matter?

This certainly encourages readers to question their own sense of morals. Unfortunately, I felt the ending of the book became less secure and with so many characters involved in telling us their stories I became less interested as it went on. This is a shame as I really wanted to love this novel.

‘The Quickening’ – Julie Myerson

I understand that famous horror-movie company Hammer joined forces with Arrow books to ask established writers to produce a book in a specific genre, focusing specifically on psychological horror. This is the third in the series, and focuses on a honeymoon couple who visit the Caribbean and end up experiencing some strange and unexplained events.

From the outset I found Rachel an unreliable narrator, and one that I just couldn’t gel with. When she is told by locals that her husband, Dan, is in danger it’s not clear what is real, what she is imagining because of her pregnancy/past events and what is meant to be ‘unexplained’. Dan himself is the kind of character that is controlling and unsympathetically portrayed throughout. At a number of points in the story I found myself hoping he would be next on the list of characters to be murdered so that the book would end!

Suffice to say this is well-written, and keeps you reading, but it is odd and that oddness prevented me from finding this the kind of book I would recommend strongly to others.

‘A Game for all the Family – Sophie Hannah

Justine Merrison is a TV executive who has escaped her high-presssured life in London to move to rural Devon. This was meant to be a new start for the family, but then Justine starts to receive mysterious phone-calls from someone who seems to know more about her than Justine is prepared to tell us.

These calls come at the same time as her daughter, Ellen, is experiencing problems at school after her best friend, George, is excluded. When Justine goes to school to investigate matters, she learns there is no pupil called George. Her concerns for Ellen’s wellbeing are heightened when she reads a chilling story – written by her daughter – about a series of murders committed in their new home.

After losing my interest in Sophie Hannah’s recent novels I felt this was back on form in many ways. It made me doubt my own sanity at times, but it gripped me from the start and I was desperate to know exactly what was going on.

‘Elizabeth is Missing’ – Emma Healey

I cannot help but feel that losing one’s memory, and having your sense of self eroded, must be one of the worst things imaginable.

I felt the utmost sympathy for Maud, who writes endless notes to herself but cannot remember when she wrote them. She knows her friend Elizabeth is missing, but seems to have no recollection of why she believes this to be the case. However, she seems to experience a sense of clarity when recalling the facts surrounding the disappearance of her sister, Sukey, many years previously. Unfortunately, as an unreliable narrator we are never quite clear what Maud is remembering and what she thinks she remembers.

This is a book that crosses a number of genres. It was not a comfortable read by any means because of the nature of the illness Maud has, but I did enjoy this story because of the controlled way in which we see the pieces coming together.

‘Broken Promise’ – Linwood Barclay

David Harwood is a single parent, recently made redundant, and he is living in his home-town of Promise Falls with his parents. Things could be better. As is often the way with fiction, things are about to get a lot worse!

Without going into details, he gets caught up in the aftermath of what can only be described as a horrific murder.

I raced through this, desperate to find out if my hunch about the ‘bad guy’ was correct. It was, but I wish I’d learned more about why he’d acted as he did. The ending also felt a little open-ended for me, but given that this is part of a new series I assume this is to set up what comes next.

I was given a free digital copy of this by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.